Was looking at laptops for a friend, and I came across this HP g6-1b60us for $400. Quite possibly the king of budget laptops.
Throw in any recent SSD and this will give you better real-world performance than a high-end macbook air. Of course; it's twice as heavy, doesn't calculate pi as fast, and won't get you laid... but it'll help your triceps and you'll be able to spend that extra thousand on something else.
Feel free to challenge this!
Code:
A4-3300M
15.6" HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
AMD Radeon™ HD 6480G
5.22 lbs
4GB DDR3
500GB (5400RPM) SATA
Up to 7 hours battery life (internet)
DVD + Webcam + Wireless-N + Windows7 Home
Doesn't seem to have anything wrong with it; one review mentioned a lack of BIOS options and noisy fan (seems isolated)
Throw in any recent SSD and this will give you better real-world performance than a high-end macbook air. Of course; it's twice as heavy, doesn't calculate pi as fast, and won't get you laid... but it'll help your triceps and you'll be able to spend that extra thousand on something else.
Feel free to challenge this!